You have only one couple of apples, so it's singular.
There are multiple apples, so it's plural.
Which one is right, "there are a couple of apples" or "there is a couple of apples"? I have seen both ...

What part of speech is there in the sentence “There is a book on the table?”
Also, while typing it out, another question pops up vis-à-vis punctuation. In my complete first sentence above, I ended it ...

While adding to an Answer to this question, I needed to use the above phrase, and I suddenly realised I was unsure whether to write "is" or "are".
There is more than one way to skin a cat.
If there ...